Editor’s Note: Florida Power & Light is spending tens of thousand of dollars convincing Vero Beach voters to re-elect Tracy Carroll. They are making no effort to disseminate balanced news about the company’s operations. In the interest of transparency, we though Vero Beach readers should at least be given the following story.
By MARIMER MATOS/THE COURTHOUSE NEWS
Sept. 18, 2012
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CN) – Florida Power & Light fired a safety officer for shutting down a dangerously leaking nuclear reactor, because it cost $6 million to repair, the man claims in court.
Mark W. Hicks sued Florida Power & Light Co. in Port St. Lucie County Court, alleging whistleblower violations, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel and fraud.
After 20 years in the “Nuclear [U.S.] Navy Program,” Hicks says, he had been a safety compliance officer for two FP&L’s nuclear power plants for less than a year when he discovered coolant leaking from a reactor’s “code safety relief valve.”
Hicks says that under the Code of Federal Regulations, the leak “mandated the immediate shutdown of the reactor.”
“It was clear to Hicks that there was great potential peril, as a reactor which loses too much nuclear reactor coolant has a potential of causing core damage, which could ultimately lead to a nuclear meltdown at the power plant, putting the entire civilian population, which would be in proximity to the reactor, in danger,” the complaint states.
“In fact, the same type of coolant leak that Hicks observed at the St. Lucie power plant was what caused the partial nuclear core meltdown on March 28, 1979, known as the Three Mile Island Accident, in Middletown, Pennsylvania, which was the worst nuclear accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.
Indian River Guardian 
The FP&L employee has a good case if he reported the violations to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC staff would be able to testify that he was indeed entitled to whistleblower protection.
that’s just scary. it should give one pause about them buying the city power grid. if they are that greedy, what makes one think they will care about the city of vero?